I live in a very tiny, very uncultured city.

Yes, I'm glad some artists are sticking it to the man (my favorite band Radiohead did it first!), but that's not going to become the de-facto distribution model for quite some time. I have no problem with downloading music, but if I actually would listen to it more than once or twice, I try to buy it. I'm familiar with Girl Talk, my brother organized a music festival in San Francisco that had him in it and his set got stopped short because he invited everyone on stage to dance.

I agree that experiences are much more valuable than records, but I see them as very different things and I value each in their own way. But honestly, music is probably the least of my luxury expenses. Games are the most expensive ($300 so far this year), followed by coffee ($227), then movies + rentals ($121). I've spent 0 on music this year... all the CDs I received have been gifts so far.

I've taken all these luxuries into account in my budget (Lifestyle)... so far it looks like I'm slightly over budget.

September Update (close enough).

Well, instead of sticking to my goals, I decided to do something unexpected on a whim. I took out the the 2k I was saving for my Roth IRA and took another 1k from my car fund and maxed out my Roth IRA. Then I took 3k more out of my car fund and put it into some ETF/index funds. So now I need to save up about 8k more to get a car (if I get a car). I then upped my 401k contribution 2%.

So now I need to give some purpose to my funds and rethink my budget. I might open another savings account to start saving up for a house of some kind in the next 4 years. That's really the only big financial goal that I have other than a car. Current goal is to save up for a car within 8 months (May) and keep investing 1k a month outside of retirement.

Add my steam idea to your account

sdogg2m

Maybe we can play some Team Fortress 2 sometime.